Up until 2009, Gary Decker owned and ran a car dealership in Clarenville, Newfoundland, selling cars made by General Motors Corp.: Pontiacs, Buicks and GMCs. The family-owned business had 30 employees and grossed about CA$15 million per year. But in May 2009 he signed an agreement with General Motors of Canada Ltd.(GMCL) to close his dealership in exchange for a winding-down payment. His dealership closed its doors a few months later.
Decker’s business was just one of 202 GMCL dealerships that GMCL closed in a frantic restructuring to qualify for a bailout from the Canadian government, while the company and its American parent company, GM, teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. The dealers had only six days to review the agreement that would effectively mean the end of their businesses. The average payment each received for signing was approximately $600,000. “It was like someone took the rug from under you, and started beating you with it,” Decker says.
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